Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

I am quite concerned about having that sort of public convention on the future of education, given the context that every five years or so the National Disability Authority does a survey on public attitudes to disability. The first time I read the survey was in 2011. I was shocked then that 24% of the population who were surveyed felt that a child with autism or intellectual disability should not be educated in a mainstream class with their children.

The last survey was done in 2017 and one would have thought we would have moved on from that. However, the same question was asked and 28% of people surveyed said they did not want a child to be educated in a mainstream class if he or she had autism or intellectual disabilities. This is our ground zero in terms of public attitudes. Having a discussion in that context is really challenging, although I get what the Deputy means in terms of where the bedrock needs to be constitutionally.

Notwithstanding the Constitution, we have an obligation under the UN convention, which is expressed in Article 24. That, for the Government in all its policies, should be the foundation of where we start, where we need to go and what the Government needs to comply with, given that it is drafting those reports currently. The State has an obligation to comply with the UN convention from the get-go, regardless of what our Constitution states.